I try to avoid school buses. It's usually a much longer drive either to or from the gym if I get stuck behind that big yellow rectangle, that has the power to stop traffic going either way, for however long it takes for all the "tinies" to get situated and ready to go. There is this one particular spot where it takes so long, that cars usually start finding a new route to avoid the long wait. I am usually behind the long line of cars, that I never understand what takes SO long at this certain house.
I have a new hero. Her name is Lil, and I would guess she’s in her late fifties.
I met her earlier this year when she introduced me to her daughter, whom she
was pushing in a wheelchair. Early in their marriage, Lil and her husband
decided that they would adopt two children. As they became familiar with the
family services system, they learned that there were kids in the system nobody
wanted. So they went to the local adoption agency and asked for the kids with
the most pronounced disabilities, the most traumatic histories, and the most
hopeless futures. They asked if they could have the kids nobody wanted. Over
the past thirty or so years, they have raised well over twenty children, raising
their biological children alongside their adopted children.
When Lil got to this point in her story, she reached down and patted her daugh-
ter and said, “This is Crystal. She’s twenty-seven years old but will be about
six months old developmentally for the rest of her life. She can’t talk or walk
or move or feed herself or do anything on her own. She will be like this, totally
dependent on us, until the day she dies. And I love her so much. My family and
I, we can’t imagine life without her. She makes everything so much better.”
What is Lil doing?
She’s bringing heaven to earth.
She gives us a glimpse into another realm. Into a better way. The way of God.
She and her family have taken kids who were discarded because of their per-
ceived lack of worth and said, “No, you are not to be rejected and turned away.
We are going to love you as an equal, as a human, as one of us.”
I don't know this family, I could be wrong about it all. But I'd like to think that joyful twelve year old girl and her family are bringing a little bit of Heaven to earth. At least, that is what I felt like I was witnessing.
